Repetition of the Title of the Song

[omorka]

Weird Al's parodies of boy-band songs somehow rescue the songs, for me. (DaVinci's Notebook's parody of the whole genre does something similar; see also the title of the post.) There was a period when I had "I Want It That Way" as a persistent earworm, and I actually purchased the song off of iTunes in order to play it through three times (which is the only way I can consistently clear an earworm, short of replacing it with one of the two atom bombs, which I will not mention here so as not to get them stuck in anyone else's head and which are often worse than the earworm). However, not only does "eBay" successfully clear that earworm, having had the opportunity to compare them side-by-side, I have come to a startling conclusion:

Weird Al's version is musically superior.

I think it's because he knows what he's doing and they don't. After all, delivering a message through comedy is often more difficult than delivering it straight. But, more to the point, for him, the imagination and the execution are done by the same person. The boy-bands typically can't read music, even if they write their own lyrics. Weird Al picks the whole thing apart and rebuilds it from the ground up. On most of his parodies, he spends a lot of effort making it note-for-note except for the humorous substitutions (I can't tell "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from "Smells Like Nirvana" until the lyrics start). But on the boy-band songs, I think he actually fixes things - fills musical holes, as it were. And somehow, the intellectual effort of creating the parody makes the music of the songs less embarrassing to enjoy.

His voice has also gotten noticeably better over time. His harmonies on "eBay" are a lot better than they are on the song listed below. I suspect he finally decided to take vocal lessons around Off The Deep End - not that his voice was bad to begin with, but he seems to be able to control the nasality better. Maybe he could pass the info along to Bob Dylan . . .

Comments

Smells like Nirvana vs Teen Spirit

[yermie.livejournal.com]

Weird Al's version is slightly faster, and sounds slightly higher keyed.

Although, I did spend a lot of time listening to both versions, so that may have something to do with it.

And yes, DaVinci's NoteBook have some interesting songs... have you tried "Internet Porn" yet? (girl on girl on girl on girl on girl on guy on sheep...)

Another interesting band is Jim's Big Ego. You should check them out as well. They did the "Addicted to Stress" song a few years back, which was relatively popular (well, ok, I liked it).

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I don't own Poodle Hat yet, in no small part because I LOATHE Eminem so strongly that I don't think even Weird Al can save his stuff.

That said, I routinely think that Weird Al's songs are better, musically, than the originals. In part this is Weird Al's genius. However, this improvement is a necessity; comedy has a much higher standard than so-called "serious work." Humor is a fragile, delicate thing, easily broken by substandard work- never mind anything as obvious as a flubbed note or syllable.

Anyway, let me think: Weird Al parody rewrites muscially superior to the best-known example of the original....

Yoda (Lola) - The original is GODAWFUL. Weird Al made it into one of my top 5 earbugs.

Eat It (Beat It) - With Weird Al you don't have any problem figuring out what the hell the words in the lyrics are, much less what they mean. Yo, Michael? EN-UN-CI-ATE.

Gump (Lump) - The original was really empty guitar; Weird Al managed to give it a bit of depth.

Jurassic Park (MacArthur Park) - Another song, the original of which I find unlistenable.

And honorable mention to a songs I can think of offhand which may or may not be -better- than the original, but which stand equal at least:

Amish Paradise (Gangsta Paradise) - The original doesn't suck at all- it got a Grammy for good reason. Weird Al definitely brings something of his own to the concept, though.

(I had a second one in mind, but in typing up the first it slipped my mind. It's late must sleep.)

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

Al has a better band than most rock stars. I remember my father pointing this out when I was listening to the "In 3-D" album as a child. He pointed out how much tighter the guitar playing was than the songs that were being parodied.

You're right about when Al started really getting good with the vocals, but I think he's always been taking lessons. Perhaps he did step up the vocal excersizes. The big thing that changed around then is that he stopped eating meat (and too much junk food).

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Speaking of "atom bombs" which will clear out most earworms -- I have a couple which are actually pleasant (for me, at least) to have stuck in my head. One is a lovely Spanish waltz which I'll have to play for you sometime; the other is Michael Longcor's "Planet Zydeco". Starting either of those will generally chase out anything else.